How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World
Since its first entry into the literature discussion in the 1980s, customer relationship management (CRM) has found its way into nearly every company. Concepts like personalization, loyalty programs, and customer valuation are used regularly to interact with and prioritize customers. Unsurprisingly, this more widespread use has changed our understanding of CRM substantially and as a consequence, the field has seen a remarkable transformation in the past 3 decades. Yet, the CRM strategies implemented by many firms today are frequently still fundamentally based on an understanding of CRM from the early days. The purpose of this article is to outline the origins of CRM and to present the main wisdoms that firms believed to be true about customers 3 decades ago. I then discuss the key insights that academics and managers have obtained in recent years that increasingly challenge those wisdoms. The article ends with an outlook of CRM in years to come and presents some of the major challenges practitioners and researchers will have to deal with in the near future.
Swot Analysis of "How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World" written by Michael Haenlein includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Crm Wisdoms facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Data, Influence, Social platforms and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Crm Wisdoms, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Crm Wisdoms operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Crm Wisdoms
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Crm Wisdoms
Strengths How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Crm Wisdoms in How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Crm Wisdoms has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Crm Wisdoms to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Crm Wisdoms is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Crm Wisdoms in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Crm Wisdoms are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Training and development
– Crm Wisdoms has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Crm Wisdoms is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Crm Wisdoms in the sector have low bargaining power. How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Crm Wisdoms to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Crm Wisdoms is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Michael Haenlein can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Crm Wisdoms has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Crm Wisdoms has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Diverse revenue streams
– Crm Wisdoms is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Crm Wisdoms digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Crm Wisdoms has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Crm Wisdoms has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Crm Wisdoms has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World HBR case study mentions - Crm Wisdoms takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Crm Wisdoms has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Crm Wisdoms 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Crm Wisdoms is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Crm Wisdoms needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Need for greater diversity
– Crm Wisdoms has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Crm Wisdoms has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Crm Wisdoms even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Crm Wisdoms is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Crm Wisdoms supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Crm Wisdoms vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Crm Wisdoms has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Crm Wisdoms has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Opportunities How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Crm Wisdoms can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Crm Wisdoms has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Crm Wisdoms to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World case study. Crm Wisdoms can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Crm Wisdoms in the consumer business. Now Crm Wisdoms can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Crm Wisdoms in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Crm Wisdoms is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Crm Wisdoms to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Crm Wisdoms can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Sales & Marketing segment.
Buying journey improvements
– Crm Wisdoms can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Crm Wisdoms can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Manufacturing automation
– Crm Wisdoms can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Crm Wisdoms can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Crm Wisdoms has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Crm Wisdoms can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Crm Wisdoms can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Threats How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World are -
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Crm Wisdoms with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Crm Wisdoms in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Crm Wisdoms high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Crm Wisdoms can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Crm Wisdoms business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Crm Wisdoms has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Crm Wisdoms needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Crm Wisdoms can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Environmental challenges
– Crm Wisdoms needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Crm Wisdoms can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Crm Wisdoms will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Crm Wisdoms demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Crm Wisdoms.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Crm Wisdoms needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of How to Date Your Clients in the 21st Century: Challenges in Managing Customer Relationships in Today's World is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Crm Wisdoms needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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